By: Jennifer Barry
China now has the fifth largest official gold reserve, 1,054 metric tons, surpassing Switzerland. While this was a 76% jump in gold holdings, the yellow metal is still only 1.6% of China’s foreign reserves. Just to reach the global average of 10.5%, China would have to grow its gold hoard to nearly 7,000 t.
This announcement was a huge coup for the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA), which has reported since 2003 that China was surreptitiously buying large tranches of gold. Contrary to the official communication, GATA’s intelligence indicates that China’s purchases were made on the open market through intermediaries in New Zealand and Australia. Ellison Chu, director of precious metals at Standard Bank in Hong Kong, backs the GATA theory that China has obtained foreign gold, stating that “China has been buying via government channels from South Africa, Russia and South America.”
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